


The Northern Lights

by hippolarium



Series: Agduna Week 2020 [1]
Category: Frozen (Disney Movies)
Genre: Agduna Week 2020, F/M, Fluff, Hopeless pining, Mostly Canon Compliant, just a lot of fluff in general
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-05
Updated: 2020-02-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:34:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22571827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hippolarium/pseuds/hippolarium
Summary: ~ She looked back at him in shock, her eyes shining with unfettered yet inexplicable emotion. Then she smiled, the brightest smile he had ever seen. “Agnarr, you are unbelievable.” ~It's Iduna's 17th birthday, and Agnarr has a surprise planned out to celebrate. It's the first time they've gotten the chance to hang out alone, and Agnarr can barely keep it together. But as the night progresses and old memories come up, things take an unexpected turn.Written for Agduna Week 2020; Day One: First.
Relationships: Agnarr/Iduna (Disney)
Series: Agduna Week 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1624126
Comments: 3
Kudos: 21





	The Northern Lights

**Author's Note:**

> hey everyone!! this is my submission for agduna week 2020, day one: first. i gotta say, i wrote this story in the same universe as another agduna fic i'm working on, where they met each other months before the big fight and got the chance to actually become friends. it's mostly canon compliant except for the fact that they have a little bit of history prior to the battle. i say this because this may or may not be relevant later in the story 👀
> 
> i give you... The Northern Lights...

“If I had known you were going to drag me out into the woods in the middle of the night, I wouldn’t have agreed to this.”

Agnarr chuckled nervously as he dismounted. In the three turbulent years of reign, he had developed the ability to renounce himself in favour of the Crown, but somehow only Iduna had the ability to recall his humanity. He almost scoffed at his weakness; only a few hours ago, he had been able to work his way out of a high pressure situation with the Coronian Navy without breaking a sweat. But ironically, now that he finally had the chance to be properly alone for the first time with the person he most wanted to be around, he could barely keep his composure.

He secured his horse before turning towards Iduna and helping her dismount from hers. He was grateful for his riding gloves; his palms had increasingly grown clammy for the past hour whilst they rode to the spot he had prepared, and the last thing he needed was to scare her away with his sweaty hands. “You know, a little faith in me wouldn’t hurt,” he said, practically leaping at the chance to fall back into their usual banter. A little normalcy was exactly what he needed to help assuage his nerves. “Besides, I thought you liked the woods.”

“I do like the woods,” she said, securing her own horse. “I also like being in the warmth of my bed, especially at this time of night.”

Panic flared up within him. “Are you cold? I’m so sorry, I should’ve told you we’d be out here-”

She cut him off with a giggle and pulled out her purple scarf from her saddle bag. “I came prepared,” she said, wrapping it around her shoulders. “You worry way too much about things going wrong.”

She came to stand beside him, and he automatically reached out to adjust her braid from under her scarf. She flashed him a grateful smile, and his heart skipped a beat. “Yeah, well, when there’s an entire kingdom relying on you to keep things running smoothly, one can never be too careful,” he said, leading them down the path he had spent the past few weeks memorising. “Are you sure that scarf is enough for you?”

“Absolutely, it’s actually quite warm,” she replied. Then her voice softened. “And you know you don’t have to be the King around me, right? You do enough worrying back at home.”

In the darkness of the trees, he smiled as warmth blossomed in his chest. He had known for some time now that Iduna was more to him than just a friend, but he was afraid of openly pursuing her. Not only would it bring her more unwanted attention from the aristocratic vipers at court, but she had never given him any indication that she was interested in him. She was his best friend, and he didn’t want to lose her because of a stupid crush.

But that didn’t mean he couldn’t secretly relish in these quiet conversations and fleeting moments where her undivided attention was on him. Yes, he was pathetic for pining after her like a lovesick schoolboy; his other friends never failed to remind him. But Agnarr, by nature, had always worn his heart on his sleeve and followed his emotions. And when his birthright and duty were constantly demanded cold and unfeeling leadership from him, there was no harm in this tiny solace with her, where he was free to truly feel.

“I’ve been thinking,” Iduna said, pulling him out of his thoughts. “I think we need to update your name.”

“My name?” he echoed.

“Yeah,” she replied. “King Ribbon Boy doesn’t really cut it anymore.”

That caught his attention. He stopped in his tracks and turned around to face her, shocked. She had been calling him by an array of nicknames ever since they were fourteen, but  _ King Ribbon Boy _ had been her favourite. He had long stopped letting it irk him, and only argued back half-heartedly from time to time. Although he’d never admit it for obvious reasons, he had eventually come to like the nicknames she gave him. As far as he knew, he was the only person she had them for. “You’re not serious.”

The corners of her lips twitched into a smirk and she strode past him. “You don’t really wear ribbons anymore. It’s not really accurate to keep calling you that,” she mused.

“Oh, so  _ now _ you think it’s inaccurate?” he spluttered, jogging to catch up.

“Ever since you turned seventeen, you’ve stopped wearing them altogether,” she said, her eyes sparkling playfully as she glanced up at him.

He scoffed. “Yeah, because they’re childish,” he muttered.

“I’m gonna pretend you didn’t just disrespect ribbons to my face,” she said. He shot her a strange look. Her smirk widened when she saw his expression, and she shifted closer ever so slightly until their shoulders were brushing together. Despite the layers of clothing between them, every nudge sent a jolt through his arm. “Anyway the point is, we need to update your name. Keep things fresh and modern.”

“I really don’t think this is necessary,” he argued back half-heartedly.

“Oh, I’ve got it!” She strode ahead and stood in front of him, forcing him to stop. Her eyes were shining excitedly. “King Shoulder Fringes!” she burst out.

He blinked at her stunned. Almost unconsciously, he reached for the golden fringes on his shoulder. Most of the time, he didn’t really care much for the way he dressed; Stefan would usually choose his outfit for the day, and he would allow the servants to dress him without complaint. In fact, he had initially balked when Stefan had him wear a bunad with the shoulder fringes for a dinner with some of their allies in the west. He had thought it stupid and distracting. But that had been before he had seen Iduna later that evening and she had told him that it made his shoulders look more manly. 

“You wear them all the time now,” she continued.

Agnarr quickly grabbed her hand and continued along, determinedly facing away from her to hide the blush he was sure had appeared on his cheeks. “I… do not,” he grumbled.

It was the truth. They were quite distracting during meetings, and he steered clear of them whenever he needed to make a discreet walk throughout the streets. He only wore them when he knew he was going to see her.

“You wear them enough,” she replied airily. “ _ King Shoulder Fringes _ . I think I like it. It draws inspiration from an iconic Agnarr-style clothing element just like  _ King Ribbon Boy _ , but it also signifies growth as you transition into a more matured, more individual phase of your life, as reflected in your clothing choices. Rather than simply wearing whatever outfit is presented before you, you’ve progressed into making your own choices and asserting your preferences. It’s very fitting.”

He looked towards her, impressed by how easily she was able to come up with that.  _ I can’t believe  _ this _ is the girl I’ve fallen in love with.  _ “You are unbelievable,” he said, unable to keep the awestruck smile from his lips.

Her eyes met his and she returned his smile. “I’m taking that as a compliment,” she said.

Soon enough, they came to the spot he had prepared; a small clearing at the top of a hillside, half enclosed by trees. Lanterns hung about on the branches of the trees cast the whole clearing in a soft glow, and there was a small picnic laid out in the centre. Agnarr watched anxiously from the treeline as Iduna walked into the clearing, taking in the whole sight. Although it didn’t seem like much, he had been losing sleep over this night for weeks now, perhaps more than any of the other political engagements on his schedule.

Finally, she looked back at him, her icy blue eyes sparkling with wonder, and suddenly, all those weeks of preparation and anxiousness were worth it. “ _ This _ was the surprise you’ve been worrying about all along?”

He reminded himself how to breathe and followed after her, his heart so full of happiness that he thought he might explode. “Happy birthday, Iduna,” he said softly.

For a moment, neither of them said a word. Then, all at once, she came rushing towards him, throwing her arms around his shoulders and burying her face in his chest. He stumbled a little at the suddenness, but he found his balance and hesitantly wrapped his arms around her waist.

“It’s beautiful,” she whispered, looking up at him. For once, she was looking at him without the usual veneer of reservation that she usually carried everywhere she went, and the full force of her happiness and admiration was almost enough to bring him to his knees. “I… You don’t understand how much this means to me. Thank you.”

It was the closest they had ever been. Agnarr could smell the scent of herbs and earth in her hair, and see each individual freckle over her nose. The warmth of her body was seeping through his clothes, and his senses were heady with  _ her _ . His heart was racing so fast, he was sure she could feel it in his chest. And in that moment, despite how fleeting and pathetic it was of him, he allowed himself to believe that she could really be his.

“This isn’t even the best part,” he said, unable to help his smile.

Her mouth fell open. “You’re kidding.”

His smile grew wider and he (painstakingly) released her, before guiding her over to the picnic spot. Then he gestured to the sky. She followed his gaze and gasped; the first hints of the borealis were beginning to appear, streaking across the sky unobstructed by any buildings or chimney smoke as often was the case in Arendelle.

“You always said you wished you didn’t have to wait for the first of the northern lights on your own,” he said after a moment.

She looked back at him in shock, her eyes shining with unfettered yet inexplicable emotion. Then she smiled, the brightest smile he had ever seen. “Agnarr,  _ you _ are unbelievable.”

It was all he could do not to declare his love for her at that very moment. Never before had his heart ached so deeply to  _ be _ with her.

Mercifully, she turned back towards the lights, and Agnarr recollected his wits. He really needed to calm down. He couldn’t keep breaking down like this every time she so much as looked at him.

Eventually, they sat down on the small blanket where the food was laid out and began to eat, making idle conversation in between. Most of the time, they sat there wordlessly, in awe of the magnificent green and purple hues before them.

Although he had never really taken an interest in the lights in the same way Iduna did, he found himself drawn to them more and more often as of late. He couldn’t shake the sense that somehow, something significant had happened to him as he watched the lights. It was the same feeling he got whenever he thought about the elusive girl in his dreams, the only thing he seemed to remember from his time in the Enchanted Forest. The vaguest outline of a memory, so faint that it could be mistaken for a dream, that for some reason resonated within him as important, yet whose specifics he could never fully grasp.

“Sometimes when I look at the lights, I get this really weird sense of deja-vu,” he said. In his periphery, she looked at him curiously. “I’ve never told anyone this before, but I, I have this… vague memory, almost like a dream, of watching the lights with someone. I can never remember their face, or their name, or what their voice sounded like… But this person, a girl, I think, she tells me this story about the lights. That they lead the way to some mystical place at the end of the world and the beginning of eternity. That they guide the way for spirits to this mystical place. She even had a special name for the lights in this other language…” He tried to repeat those foreign words the girl in his memory-dream had said, but without success.

Then, Iduna spoke the exact words he was looking for. “The Path of the Spirits,” she said quietly, translating her words.

It was Northuldrian.

The language that the girl in his memory-dream spoke was Northuldrian. He was sure he knew it, but the name was always just beyond his reach. Much of his memory from the months he had spent in the Enchanted Forest had been lost when he had woken up in Arendelle, but he knew from his writings, before he had been forced to surrender them, that he had begun to learn Northuldrian. He could never forget the distinctively  _ bright _ sound of the language, strangely like the sun itself.

And Iduna had just spoken it perfectly.

He looked at her in shock as realisation dawned on him. Suddenly, he remembered the rumours that had followed him wherever he went when he was finally well enough to leave his room; that a Northuldra had managed to escape before the mist had cursed the entire Forest, that a figure in Northuldrian clothing had been spotted near the Palace on the night before that he was believed to have returned, that there was no way the King would’ve managed his way back to Arendelle in the sorry state he was found without help.

It was her. She was the one who had saved him.

Agnarr could barely contain his joy. All of a sudden, he understood the guarded edge that never seemed to leave her eyes, the way she always evaded talking about her past, how she always seemed to grow nervous whenever the Northuldra were brought up around her, why she loved spending her free time in the forest beyond the city far more than anything else… it all made sense. She had always carried herself so protectively, with a certain fear of the world that he would give anything to alleviate. But now he knew! She didn’t have to be scared anymore!

“How did you know that?” he asked softly, every cell in his body practically vibrating with anticipation.

There was a beat of silence. Then, carefully avoiding his gaze, she answered, “The story sounded familiar. I read it in a book once.”

In an instant, his hopes plummeted. Every record of the Northuldra and the Enchanted Forest had been locked away in a deep chamber within the Palace, forbidden from ever seeing the light of day. Had he not interceded, they would’ve been destroyed as soon as they were found. There was no way she could’ve found that out in a book. She was still running away. Crestfallen, he settled back in his place and looked back over the sky.

But in the midst of his devastation, a single thought broke through.  _ She’s Northuldra. _

She hailed from a tribe of people who had killed Arendelle’s last king, and made an orphan out of their reigning monarch. She had given up her whole life in the Forest, her family, her culture, her home, in order to save him. And now she had managed to rebuild her life in a kingdom that had been ready to march into battle with her people, who hated her tribe more than ever before in all of Arendelle’s history, who would crucify her if they ever realised her true origins.

A deep and hollow sadness suddenly took hold of him as he realised the full extent of her suffering. He looked at her again, the focused inscrutability of her features, the pallor of her complexion now that the topic of the Northuldra had come up. Of course her first instinct would be to protect herself. She had gone through incredible lengths to get to the place she was today. She had everything to lose if she was ever discovered.

Agnarr exhaled quietly and tentatively reached out, brushing a stray piece of hair behind her ear. She turned towards him in surprise, her expression carefully reserved. “What else have you been reading?”

She had always been an expert at keeping her emotions from revealing themselves on her face. But he had known her long enough to read the incremental changes in her eyes; how a little bit of that hard edge thawed in relief at his question. “Well, there’s this really good book about trolls I found in the library last week…”

Although he was a little disappointed, it was nothing compared to what she had gone through. He would never force her into revealing something she wasn’t comfortable with sharing. No, he would wait until she was ready. And as much as he wanted to reach out and take away every little thing that burdened her and kept her from freely living out in the world without fear, he knew it wasn’t his call to make. The only thing he could do his best to love her and support her in the hope that maybe one day, she would feel safe enough to stop hiding away.

Luckily for him, he was content to simply love her for as long as she needed.

**Author's Note:**

> i have a tumblr pls say hello :))


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